“I can’t.”
“Goddess help me,” he prayed, then repositioned his anchored hand on a rock closer to her. At this angle, he might be able to reach her, but he’d never have the leverage to pull her back up. Still, he had to try. Digging his fingers in, he stretched himself out—
—just as she lost her grip. She dropped, her arm brushing his fingertips until, by some miracle, his fist closed around her wrist. Her weight threatened the hold he had on the crater wall.
“You have to let me go and pull yourself up,” she sobbed, tears flowing.
“I can’t,” he said.
“You can. If you let me go, you’ll be strong enough. You’ll survive.”
“I can’t. I can’t survive without you. I can’t do it alone.”
“Of course you can. You made it down here alone. You can climb up alone.”
“Not this. Life. I can’t do life alone. Not anymore. I need you, Meredith.”
“Silas…”
“I love you. I refuse to let Alex take one more person from me. Not you. Not this time.”
“Oh, Silas.” She dangled helplessly from his hand and glanced at the eclipsed moon. In moments the full moon would be fully exposed again. He would shift back and lose his grip. “I’m not sure we have a choice.”
“I’m not letting you go. We either both get out of this crater or we both go down together.”
“Eh-hem,” Jason called from the edge of the crater. “No fucking way am I becoming alpha. Hang on, brother. Laina’s awake and checking the truck for some rope.”
“Hurry, brother. This isn’t as easy as it looks.” A brown blur appeared behind Jason’s head. “Jason, look out!”
Jason turned, but what now appeared to be a giant eagle did not attack. She coasted around his head and swooped down the rocky side of the abyss. Before Silas could react, she’d swept Meredith into her talons, carrying her to safety. Silas breathed a sigh of relief to see Meredith on solid ground.
Fingers aching and limbs trembling, he heaved his weight upward, perching on the tiny lip of stone to rest. He could do this. He could climb the rest of the way. Digging his fingers in, he tried not to think too much about how easily he could fall. Hand, hand, foot, foot. Repeat.
Jason reached for him, lying on his belly at the edge. “Just a few more feet, Silas. You’re almost there.”
Laina appeared at his side, reaching down for him as well. “No rope, but I found this.” She dropped a hacked length of seatbelt to him. Silas lifted himself another six inches and wrapped his hand in the black strap.
“I’ve got it!” Silas said.
Jason grabbed the strap and helped Laina pull. “Hang on, brother. We’ve got you.”
“Ow!” A searing pain lassoed Silas’s ankle. His gaze darted toward his leg to see a tongue of fire originating from the pit below, wrapped around his ankle like a whip.
“Hang on, Silas!” Jason yelled. He and Laina strained to pull him up.
The tongue pulled harder, the burning, tugging pain threatening his hold on the strap and wall. “I can’t hold on,” Silas said.
With a high-pitched cry, the eagle soared back into the crater, snapping at the fiery whip and slashing it with its talons. The burning thing slipped off Silas’s bare ankle, receding into the pit below. Silas dug his toe into the side of the crater, and with everything he had left, climbed. Jason’s hand landed on his shoulder, hoisting him over the lip of the crater.
And then he was in Jason and Laina’s arms. They huddled together in the kind of group hug only experienced in the most desperate of times, the type with tears and the blubbering of words that are forgotten the moment they are spoken because the feelings are too intense to be described in any language.
Silas was alpha. He’d saved his family. He’d saved his pack. And he wept openly like a child. And then, with an intense pain that bubbled along his spine, Silas gave himself over to his wolf, his brother and sister shifting beside him.
Silas becamehuman again at the edge of the wood. He blinked into the sunrise, the night before coming back to him. Alex was dead. Nickelova was dead. And Meredith was both innocent and alive. He turned over to find Laina shifting back a few yards away.
“Are you okay?” he asked her when she was human again.
“Better. I think the shift helped. Alex did something to my head before. Everything was hazy, but I think I’m okay now. I’m just worried about the baby.”
